In addition, the budget has underlined strategies to strengthen public distribution system through cooperative and fair price shops, providing subsidy for transportation of food grains to the remote and food-deficit areas, maintaining buffer stock of food for emergency supply and creation of storage facilities in eight different places of the country. Another important aspect as outlined in the budget is providing subsidy to farmers while transporting local produce, mainly apples and beans, from five districts in Karnali, Solukhumbu, Mustang and Manang to markets in accessible areas with the expectation that the local farmers in these districts would get incentives to grow potential food crops in their locality.
A study carried out by World Food Programme shows that about 700 thousand people are facing acute shortage of food and an additional 133 thousand metric tons of food grains need to be supplied to meet their minimum requirement.
At present, the food supply chain in the country is in a very delicate situation. The constant rise of the prices of food grains in recent months has posed a huge challenge to the government and the related agencies to manage the overall supply and keep the situation under control. The long dry spell during last winter has resulted in decline in the production of wheat and pulses. The Ministry of Agriculture data shows that there was a decline of 15 percent in the production of wheat and 6 percent decline in the production of pulses on an aggregate. The spatial distribution of this decline shows that it is more severe in the hills and mountains where most of the crops are grown in rain-fed conditions.
A study carried out by World Food Programme shows that about 700 thousand people are facing acute shortage of food and an additional 133 thousand metric tons of food grains need to be supplied to meet their minimum requirement. Symptoms of food shortages have been visible as people have started migrating from the hills and mountains to the Tarai in search of food while dropout rates in school are going up as students are increasingly opting to become wage laborers in order to buy food grains from the money they earn. The problem compounded as rainfall during June-July this year was less than average. The intriguing part of the story is that only 40 percent of the rice-growing land had been planted until a few days back; the farmers in the remaining 60 percent of land were desperately waiting for adequate rain to plant the rice saplings. Of course, shortage of irrigation facilities in planted areas is another problem. The long draught will have negative effect in the yield of crops and will aggravate the situation of food shortage in the days to come. The situation has become so alarming that it requires nothing less than immediate attention and action.
Additionally, agriculture farming in Nepal is turning out to be a nightmare due to the unavailability of workforce. The young population in the rural areas are flying abroad in droves for obvious reasons. Secondly, the deteriorating law and order situation in the country and the frequent bandas and transportation strikes have taken the charm out from farming. The result is obvious: Decline in production and sharp rise in the prices of food items and essential commodities.
Ensuring food supply to the common people has become a tough task. However, the government cannot remain indifferent to the situation. Some of the actions that need to be taken up with priority are importing food grains like rice, wheat and maize in sufficient quantity and creating adequate buffer stock to supply as emergency food aid, imposing ban on export of these food items, reactivating the market monitoring mechanism to control adulteration of foods and embezzlement in measurement and weight by rogue traders, establishing adequate number of cooperatives and fair price shops and managing them properly, imposing ban on closing the national highways and feeder roads for trivial causes, improving the law and order situation, providing subsidy to farmers for minor irrigation, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs, supporting the farmers in post-harvest activities including storage and marketing of their products.
Besides, a long-term strategy in food sufficiency need to be developed and implemented for which the National Planning Commission could take up a lead role with other line ministries rallying behind in implementing the reform measures.
COOKING OIL
The price of cooking oil has soared up in recent months, particularly due to price rise in the international market. Now, it is high time for our government to consider allowing import of edible oils in bulk. Presently, import is not allowed in a pack exceeding 20 liters. This was decided in the past in order to protect domestic industries from cheap imports in large consignments at a time. But now, there is a need for revisiting this arrangement. The domestic industries could be protected through giving concessions on import duties and VAT rather than imposing barriers on import of finished products. The government may loose some revenue because of this but it should be done keeping in mind the larger interests of the consumers.
Syndicates and collusive behavior of various businesses has been a vexing issue in Nepal since quite some time. The situation of monopoly and oligopoly has seeped in very area of business. This must be tackled head-on.
(Writer is commerce secretary.)
puruojha@gmail.com
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